A Canadian general took command Thursday of a brigade of international troops trying to bring security to Afghanistan’s war-battered capital. Brig. Gen. Peter J. Devlin assumed command from Germany’s Brig. Gen. Werner Freers during a ceremony in eastern Kabul. The brigade is part of the larger International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The brigade has 3,600 troops from 19 countries, including 350 Canadians. Its main task is ensuring order in Kabul, where where rebels have killed peacekeepers and launched regular attacks against government targets. Germany and the Netherlands jointly command ISAF until next month when NATO will take over international peacekeeping in Kabul. There are currently about 5,000 international peacekeepers in the beleaguered capital.
"Beleaguered"? Next is "quagmire", I suppose.
Aside from ISAF peacekeepers, the U.S.-led coalition force of about 11,000, mostly Americans, is scattered throughout south, eastern and northeastern Afghanistan hunting the remnants of al-Qaida, the Taliban and eye-rolling nut-bag loyalists of rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. |